State Sen. Williams' Porngate complaint goes nowhere

State Attorney General Kathleen Kane lambasted judicial oversight officials last year after reviews found that former state Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin was not guilty of misconduct in connection with his controversial emails. Her criticism sparked new reviews that resulted in Eakin quitting the high court in disgrace.

Afterward, Kane ally State Sen. Anthony H. Williams (D., Phila.) filed an ethics complaints against the lawyers that originally cleared him. Now a state disciplinary board has also cleared those lawyers.

"Although reasonable people can disagree" about the original assessment of Eakin, wrote Paul Killion, chief disciplinary counsel, it was wrong to suggest that he had benefited from a cover-up.

Williams alleged that a cover-up had happened and focused his complaint on Robert Graci, the chief counsel of the state Judicial Conduct Board; Robert Byer, a Pittsburgh lawyer hired by the Supreme Court to scrutinize the emails; and Bruce Beemer, a top aide to Kane. None found anything wrong with the messages, which the later reviews contained offensive jokes and images.

Williams, who made Killion's letter public Thursday, called the decision "just another example of the system protecting itself." - Craig R. McCoy